Ana Vilma Albanez de Escobar, the first female vice president of the Republic of El Salvador, will deliver a lecture at Brown University on Tuesday, April 10, 2007. Her address, titled “El Salvador: A Country of Opportunities,” will begin at 6:30 p.m. in Salomon Center for Teaching, Room 101. It is free and open to the public.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Ana Vilma Albanez de Escobar, the first female vice president of the Republic of El Salvador, will discuss her country’s economic and social advancements in a lecture titled “El Salvador: A Country of Opportunities” at Brown University on Tuesday, April 10, 2007. Her talk, held during Brown’s Latino History Month, begins at 6:30 p.m. in the Salomon Center for Teaching, Room 101. It is free and open to the public.

An economist with thorough experience in the corporate financial field and in the administration of social and economic projects, de Escobar was elected vice president of the Republic of El Salvador in 2004. She and President Elías Antonio Saca were elected following the highest voter turnout in Salvadoran electoral history.

De Escobar is one of several international dignitaries to visit Brown this spring, as the University places a new and more focused effort on its international programs and its relationships with universities in other countries. Recent lecturers include Zhou Wenzhong, the Chinese ambassador to the United States, and former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso. Scheduled to speak this spring are Bernardo Álvarez Herrera, Venezuelan ambassador to the United States; Martin Palous, ambassador of the Czech Republic to the United Nations; and John J. Danilovich, former U.S. ambassador to both Brazil and Costa Rica and current CEO of the Millennium Challenge Corporation.

Prior to her election as vice president, de Escobar’s participation in Salvadoran politics included experience as executive director of the political party ARENA and director of its women’s sector, as well as candidate for congress in 2003. Through her leadership, she has strengthened the party’s youth sector, and the Youth for Democracy Organization of the Organization of American States (OAS). During the previous government of Francisco Flores, she served as director of the Salvadoran Institute of Social Security.

President Saca designated de Escobar as president of the Export and Investment Promotion Agency, consisting of two different agencies: PROESA, the National Foreign Direct Investment Promotion Agency, and EXPORTA, the National Agency for the Promotion of Exports. She also serves as president of the National Commission for Sustainable Development (CNDS), which works closely with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), international organizations, and government institutions responsible for carrying out national social programs. Together with the vice presidents of Guatemala and Honduras, de Escobar integrates the Comisión Trinacional del Plan Trifinio, a tripartite commission responsible for the protection of more than 7.000 square kilometers of rich biodiversity and environmental resources. This includes river basins that are vital for all three countries.

De Escobar’s lecture is sponsored by the Third World Center and the Sarah Doyle Women's Center. 

Editors: Brown University has a fiber link television studio available for domestic and international live and taped interviews, and maintains an ISDN line for radio interviews. For more information, call (401) 863-2476.

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